Map by Jake Coolidge, created for the Stanford Spatial History Project [44]

Like Palo Alto, East Palo Alto was also inhabited by the Muwekma Ohlone from around 1500 and 1000 BCE to around the 1770s CE. [1][2][3] They likely used the area as a grave site and camp. [4]

After the Spanish arrival, the Muwekma Ohlone and other Ohlone tribelets and Native Californians throughout the Bay Area were largely enslaved and forced to convert to Catholicism in Spanish missions. (To learn more about the history of genocide and enslavement of Native Americans click here) Early Spanish settlers who came across the land that became East Palo Alto, dubbed the area Rancho de las Pulgas, meaning Flea Ranch because of the invasive presence of fleas and other insects prevented Spanish soldiers from camping there. [5]

After the transition of Alta California from Spain to Mexico, the land was eventually given to Luis Antonio Arguello, the first governor of California to be born and raised in California. [6][7] However, after the transition from Mexico to the United States, much of Rancho de las Pulgas was reduced due to legal hassles. [8] (To learn more about how many Mexicans lost land during the transfer of land from Mexico to the United States click here)

During the California Gold Rush in 1849, Isaiah Wood about 2,000 acres of Rancho de las Pulgas and named the area Ravenswood. [9] Wood attempted to construct the largest wharf along the Bay between San Francisco and Alviso, which was near the then California state capital, San Jose. [10] However, ultimately, he failed and rancher Lester Cooley purchased the land which informally took on the name “Cooley’s Landing”. [11] After Cooley, came Charles Weeks who purchased a few acres of land outside of Palo Alto, which eventually merged with Ravenswood in 1925, creating East Palo Alto. [12]

From Cooley’s purchase to World War II, the area became a farming community made up of mostly Japanese and Italian flower growers and farmers. [13] However, once World War II began, the Japanese (which made up a large portion of the East Palo Alto community), were forced out through Executive Order 9066 which incarcerated all people of Japanese descent throughout the West Coast. [14] The removal of Japanese and Japanese Americans from East Palo Alto paved the way for middle-class white Americans and African Americans looking for housing. [15]

Although for a time, East Palo Alto was owned by mostly white Americans, in 6 years the population of East Palo Alto became 82% Black because of racist blockbusting and discriminatory mortgage insurance practices. [16] The book, The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, further describes how:

“Federal and state housing policy created a slum in East Palo Alto. … In ways like these, federal, state, and local governments purposefully created segregation in every metropolitan area of the nation. … That the San Francisco region was segregated by government policy is particularly striking because, in contrast to metropolitan areas like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, or Baltimore, northern California had few African Americans before migrants [sic] arrived during World War II. … the government was not following pre existing racial patterns; it was imposing segregation where it hadn’t previously taken root”. [17]

Additionally, with these segregatory practices inflated the differences between the haves and have nots. By the 1960s, East Palo Alto was a small, predominantly black community surrounded by wealthy white suburbs. [18] Its residents had limited voice in policies that affected them such as the widening of Highway 101 which intentionally created a physical barrier between East Palo Alto and Palo Alto while also eliminating 45 of East Palo Alto’s leading businesses. [19][20] The city was further impacted by Menlo Park and Palo Alto annexing 25 percent of the community in the 1950s, which further deprived the city of population and property tax revenue. [21] To add more to the already stressed city, East Palo was landed with the Romic Waste Management facility–an environmental justice issue–which opened in 1964 producing hazardous chemicals from semiconductors and hardware into sewage water and occasionally misting the city during accidents. [22] (The sewage plant was closed in 2007 with a long list of enforcement failures and poor management which can be read here)

Additionally an attempt to counter the treatment as a secondary status city, the people of East Palo Alto attempted to incorporate five times starting from 1931, only to be successful in 1983. [29] However, despite incorporation, East Palo Alto continued to suffer. The culmination of a historically poor community hurt by racist policies and shortages in funding translated into rising rates of violent crime and gang violence that arose through selling drugs. [30] By the 1990s, the city became known as “Murder Capital of the USA” for having the highest murders per capita. [31]

Starting from the 2000s, after years of well-documented cases of police corruption and misconduct, the East Palo Alto Police Department began switching towards a more community-based approach to policing. [32] Through the work spanning between several mayors, and chiefs of police with community organizations, the relationship between local police and government and the public began to improve. [33] Additionally, a great number of non-profit organizations also helped transform the East Palo Alto community and improve the quality of life for all. [34]

Dreams of a City: Creating East Palo Alto [45]